PRO: Quick pick for 2012

It’s not often that the American public can look back on a politician’s campaign promises, track their record while in office and find that they have followed up on most, if not all of the promises they made.

President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign promises included the following: Find Osama bin Laden, make health care affordable for all Americans, loosen laws that limit freedoms for the gay community and extend unemployment benefits for out of work Americans.

If we go through the list, this agenda is exactly what Obama pursued in his first term.

While some may argue that he has fallen short on his economic policies, we must remember that the United States’ series of recessions — tied intricately to the entire world’s economic woes — took almost a decade to transpire.

People who still do not have health care should point their fingers at powerful health insurance company lobbyists and the politicians in Congress who rewrote Obama’s health care bill so many times that it is indistinguishable from the original.

But not only did the Obama administration successfully repeal the ridiculous “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, it also flatly refused to spend money on federal lawyers to fight court battles in support of a ban on gay marriage.

States’ rights may supersede this issue, but there will be no presidential ban on gay rights while Obama is in office.

Fear mongering, Bible-thumping distortions of the word of Jesus, dangerous promotions of bigotry and homophobia, and tax breaks for the mega-rich are what voters can expect from any of the white male, cookie-cutter Republican candidates that are running against Obama this year.

If voters want a president that supports a more stable economy, that wants to empower the middle-class, that does not rush into expensive wars unnecessarily but will follow after any entity that threatens this country, and is progressive in his record on civil rights for our citizens, then Obama is an easy choice in 2012.